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The 64th National Folk Festival will return to Bangor this summer. The annual event will be held along the waterfront in downtown Bangor, August 22-24 for the second year in a row. The festival showcases traditional American culture, centering around music, dance, crafts, storytelling and food.
The festival is known for its diversity and is free to the public. The festival’s music includes blues, rockabilly, gospel, klezmer, jazz, bluegrass, cowboy, polka, tamburitza, old-time, mariachi, western swing, rhythm and blues, zydeco, Cajun, American Indian, Celtic, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, East Asian, Appalachian, Hispanic and African.
There are more than 20 performers scheduled to appear on the festival’s five stages.
This year’s musical lineup includes blues artists Warner Williams and Jay Summerour; honky-tonk from Dale Watson and his band Lone Stars; and Mariachi Los Camperos De Nati Cano. The mariachi band is considered the best in the world.
In addition to music and dance, the festival features storytelling, craft exhibits, workshops and a children’s area.
The Native Maine art exhibit will be expanded from last year and will feature Native Abanaki artists demonstrating basket-making, bead work, instrument-making, wood carving and drum-making, funded by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission.
Changes to this year’s festival will include more traditional and ethnic food vendors, more performers and an additional entrance.
The National Folk Festival began in St. Louis in 1934, making it the oldest folk festival in the country. Despite Bangor being the smallest city to ever host the event, last year’s festival attracted more than 80,000 people and the largest opening crowd compared with past festivals.
With the success of last year’s festival, organizers are expecting larger crowds this summer.
“There is no one who was here last year that isn’t going to be here this year, and they are all going to bring their friends,” said festival chair John Rohman in a press release.
The National Council for Traditional Arts, a nonprofit organization devoted to the preservation of traditional arts, has produced the festival with the help of local organizations including the University of Maine’s Maine Folklife Center. The National Council for Traditional Arts has scheduled Bangor to host the festival for three years through the summer of 2004.
Bangor Daily News